Polymer Composites in the Aerospace Industry. 3 Manufacturing processes for composite materials and components for aerospace applications

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Abstract

For the successful operation of civil aircraft, the main drivers currently are environmentally based. This implies that significant weight reductions are essential, and hence a fundamental re-think of the materials and their manufacturing processes used has taken place over a number of years. To realise the benefits offered by advanced composite materials, manufacturing processes must be able to produce economically large components with as few joints as possible. Also in order to increase robustness of primary structures in-service, there is a move towards co-curing monolithic components and elimination of cellular sandwich panels and multi-stage cures; this presents challenges regarding complexity of tooling and control of the process. This chapter presents the key manufacturing processes used for composite aerospace applications, control of these processes and some basic theory. Current applications of these processes on modern composite airframes are provided.
Original languageEnglish
PublisherWoodhead Publishing
Number of pages53
ISBN (Print)978-0-85709-523-7
Publication statusPublished (in print/issue) - Sept 2014

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